A Gentleman Is Simply A Patient Wolf
by simply-aly
Summary: Post-3.09  Can a wolf court a human? Elena's about to find out. After hearing howling outside during the night, Elena finally meets Klaus in wolf form and the two begin an unusual and unique courtship. Part 2 of 2 up.
1. Part 1

Elena cannot pinpoint the exact day Klaus disappears. All she knows is that one day she wakes up and she doesn't feel that dread that had permeated her life for so many months. The threats stop, the random dead bodies cease to be delivered to either her or the Salvatores front door. She opens her eyes when her alarm goes off, and her first thought isn't about any sort of supernatural dilemma. She just wonders what she's going to wear to school that day.

For the longest time, nobody talks about any of it. Nobody mentions the long string of funerals in the last few months; nobody speaks his name or that of any of the members of the Original family. It's like it never happened. Five weeks fly by, and Elena finds herself submersed in calculus homework, English group speeches and a history report for Ric's class on the similarities between the lives of Anne Boleyn and Kathryn Howard.

One day, however, as she is searching the Salvatore library for some rare books for her report that she remembers Stefan mentioning Damon had picked up some sixty years back, she hears Damon speaking with Katherine. "I've followed every lead you've given me—which really hadn't amounted to all the much to go on to begin with, let's be honest—and have found nothing. He's gone, it's literally as if he's vanished into thin air," Katherine is saying, sounding to Elena's ears more frustrated as she's ever heard even Damon.

"With any luck, he'll just stay gone forever," Damon says sarcastically, but she hears the note of fruitless hope in his tone.

"Well, we know that isn't the case. I was the one to deliver his parting warning. He's not going to disappear completely until he has what he wants." The two are remarkably alike Elena finds herself thinking as she furrows her eyebrows and listens carefully for Damon's reply.

Damon's voice is heard more clearly because he's angry and yelling now, "He's not getting her, Katherine! I won't let him."

Elena wonders what they're talking about. She assumes it's her—that Klaus wants _her_—but no one told _her_ that he was still after her.

"Then you should tell your precious Elena that the big bad wolf is out to get her, because she seems to be taking to normalcy a little too well. Everyone's getting careless now—no one even noticed when I played _Elena_ at Caroline's party last week."

Elena thinks back, remembering that party. Vaguely, she remembers having too much cheep beer and laughing too much, but she also starts to remember the 'but I just saw you's and the 'I thought I told you's.

Elena blinks, stunned. _How could she have forgotten so easily_?

"In the meantime," Katherine continues her tone more flippant now, "I suppose we should just follow their lead. If we can't find him, we should just count ourselves lucky and let it rest. You can't protect her from air, Damon."

Elena walks back to the library to grab her backpack, shoves the books into it without bothering to tell Damon that she's borrowing them, and makes her way to her own house.

-x-

In her bedroom half an hour later, Elena sits against her headboard with her laptop in her lap, staring at her half-finished report. The words won't form, for her mind isn't even on the Tudor period. All she can think about is Klaus. All of a sudden, it's as if he's standing in the room next to her, she feels his presence suffocating her again, her heart pulsing faster in her chest.

She remembers waking that morning, free and happy. Normal. Now she's the human doppelganger again, the blood source, the key to making new hybrids. She's his golden ticket to making an army. How she thought she could live a normal life, she doesn't know.

Her room feels hot and sticky all of a sudden, so she sets her laptop down on the bed and walks over to the window, letting in the cool autumn breeze. That's when she hears it.

A faint but distinct howl in the distance.

She lies awake that night, listening to the cry of the wolf, sure it is _him_. It only howls three times that night, but those few moments are burned into her brain so clearly it's like a song stuck in her head.

She goes to school the next morning having had maybe three hours of sleep, pays little attention in her classes, sleeps through study hall, and hardly touches her food at lunch.

Caroline looks worried. "What happened at the Salvatore's last night?" she asks. "Did you have a fight with Damon?"

Elena shakes her head. "He was talking with Katherine," she says distractedly, "I didn't even see him while I was there."

Elena hardly registers the look that passes between Caroline and Stefan and Bonnie. "I didn't know she was back in town," Bonnie says offhandedly.

Elena shrugs. "Turns out she's been around since at least the night of Caroline's party." She doesn't explain, wants them to figure it out on their own.

She gets up and leaves before they can start questioning her. She doesn't want to explain that, and she doesn't want to talk about last night.

-x-

She doesn't hear anymore howling in the weeks to come, but she feels the shift in the playing field. He made his move and he's waiting for her to make hers.

She comes to a realization as she stares at her night darkened ceiling—she doesn't have to tell anyone what she heard; he's after her, he wants her, not them. This is her fight.

-x-

When Elena goes to the Salvatore boarding house to return the books she borrowed on Kathryn and Anne, she finds the parlor a mess. Thinking the worst, she investigates—silently. What she finds are two sleeping vampires in Damon's rather large bed.

As she closes his door, she wonders if she should feel jealous of her predecessor. The strange complexity of Damon's affections intrigues her, but she finds that she is not jealous. It started with Katherine, it is only fitting that it ends with her as well.

Elena then thinks of Stefan and Caroline, both on the precipice of admitting their growing attraction for each other. (It was Caroline, after all, who brought Stefan back to them, so it will be a fitting conclusion to their story.)

She distractedly leaves the books on the table on her way out as she wonders if she will always be the pit stop in the love stories of others.

-x-

Christmas, New Years, and Valentine's Day pass in quick succession, and soon the spring weather is upon them. Elena finds a strange enjoyment from walking the few miles home from school in the afternoons.

After a week of walking alone, she starts to feel a strange presence around her. She ignores it for the most part, chalking it up to paranoia. After all, there has been no howling since autumn.

It is only when she arrives home one day to find muddy paw prints on the sidewalk leading to her front door that she starts to worry again.

She looks around frantically, but aside from the telltale paw prints near her feet, she sees nothing amiss. Then, still determined to keep her suspicions quiet, Elena grabs the garden hose and washes the prints away.

She returns to spending her nights listening for howls, but hears nothing.

The worrying is almost worse than the knowing, she decides when she cannot sleep.

-x-

For Elena, the worrying comes to a head when she opens her bedroom door one night after Caroline and Bonnie have left after a studying session and finds a wolf pacing her bedroom floor.

"Wolves aren't domesticated animals," she speaks to it steadily, surprising even herself with her calm demeanor. "They can't let themselves into houses undetected either." The other half of the sentence—_but vampires can_—remains unsaid, but they both hear it regardless.

It doesn't growl at her and, in fact, it looks to be rather as calm as she.

Elena is acutely aware of how little power she has, even as the only human in the current situation, so she doesn't even pretend otherwise.

She places her school books into her backpack and picks out her close for school the next day before picking up her pajamas. She walks to the bathroom and changes, brushes her teeth and hair, and reenters her bedroom where she finds the wolf curled up on the floor beside her bed.

She should be scared—she should be terrified and running away by now, probably but she isn't and she doesn't. She simply turns out the light and maneuvers her way onto the bed without touching the wolf.

In the morning, Elena wakes pleasantly well-rested for the first time in a long time. She immediately looks to the floor and cannot figure out if she is surprised or not to find that the wolf hadn't moved throughout the night.

It raises its head slightly to turn to her face, tilts its head to the side, and stares at her for a moment before lowering its head again and closing its eyes. She doesn't say anything to it as she gets ready for school, barely spares it another glance.

And when she leaves the house, she doesn't look back at her bedroom window.

-x-

Never does the wolf let itself into Elena's house again. Instead, she'll hear a faint scratching at the back door when she turns off her bedroom light each night. She then turns the light back on, quietly makes her way downstairs to avoid waking her brother, opens the back door, and lets the wolf in.

It hasn't made demands of her yet, and she subconsciously has come to the conclusion that it is best to stay on friendly terms with the wolf until it is no longer safe for her to do so. For that reason, she allows it inside her bedroom each night.

Eventually, it makes its way _onto_ the bed without her permission. She rebukes it for this, but doesn't ask it to go back to the floor, so it stays curled at the foot of the bed.

Elena is not stupid, she knows very well that the wolf is Klaus; but she tells herself that as long as she keeps the wolf and the vampire separate, the wolf poses no harm to her. It certainly seems harmless enough curled up and sleeping at the end of her bed each night.

In fact, it is almost as if it is protecting her. (The small paranoid part of her that has developed after her string of supernatural-related disasters worries what from.)

Eventually, Elena gets so used to the wolf's presence that she doesn't protest when it stretches out beside her in the bed. Instead, she reaches out hesitantly and strokes its fur. It's so soft and clean that in the darkness it is comforting instead of frightening and she falls asleep with her hand touching the wolf. It's soothing, in a way, to feel it breathing next to her, her hand rising and falling with each breath.

That isn't to say, however, that she doesn't wake up startled when her eyes open to stare at the wolf's eyes, inches from her own.

-x-

She starts taking the shortcut through the woods that her parent's had forbidden her to take when she was younger. She knows now why those warnings were so important and curses her younger self and her friends for being irresponsible enough to ignore their parents' edicts on so many occasions.

Presently the wolf walks beside her, keeping her company as she ducks branches and winds around the path worn from childhood recklessness on her way home after school each afternoon.

It's a quiet journey, for she is still reluctant to speak to the wolf in any capacity other than to chastise it. It doesn't really seem to mind, however.

-x-

Elena wonders if he notices anything amiss the night she removes all traces of Jenna from her room. Pictures get placed in an album, clothes get shoved to the back of the closet, and mementos and birthday gifts and the like are carefully set in boxes and hidden on the highest shelf in her closet.

Having anything of Jenna's in the room where her killer falls asleep each night seems so inherently _wrong_ to Elena after awhile that she takes immediate action. Yet, she can't find it in herself to deny the wolf entrance.

The wolf nuzzles her hand that night, his silent way of asking for attention. It is also an indication of just how perceptive he is, for she only gives the wolf attention when her emotions are somehow heightened.

-x-

Looking back, she really should have seen it coming. After all, nothing says secret in this town for long, and carelessness breeds inevitability in that respect.

One morning, Elena's hand is tangled in the wolf's fur as they both sleep when Jeremy opens the door, waking her. Both Salvatores are behind him, followed closely behind by their paramours of the moment, one of which is her best friend who should know better.

The wolf beside her is immediately as tense as she and she can feel the silent growl against her hand as it turns its eyes slowly to face the intruders.

Elena sits up as calmly as possible. "You all need to leave now," she says evenly, rubbing her eyes to clear away the sleepy fog. She blinks a few times, everyone quickly coming into focus. The wolf moves to stand protectively between her and the people in her doorway.

Damon is immediately on edge, and is ready to charge in and take care of the problem. Both Katherine and the wolf sense this, triggering loud and low growls in the wolf and Katherine pushing her way through to physically restrain Damon. "Well," she says to the shocked and angry crowed in front of her doppelganger's door. "I think we not only found the dilemma, but also the threat."

This time it is Stefan who tries to move closer and Caroline's too shocked to stop him, so it falls to the wolf. The wolf's growls get louder and more threatening the closer the younger Salvatore gets.

Finally, Caroline finds her voice. "Get back, Stefan, it'll bite you!" she shrieks.

Elena just watches the scene in front of her for a little longer.

Stefan ignores both warnings and proceeds, so the wolf snaps it's teeth and quickly moves forward slightly, as if taking Caroline's suggestion and running with it.

Elena moves into action. "Stop," she says soothingly to the wolf, raising her hand and petting its head. She's paying too much attention to the wolf to notice everyone's expressions. The wolf backs down, the growling ceases, but it doesn't move from its protective stance in front of Elena.

"I think I speak for everyone," Jeremy says, his hand still on her door handle, "when I ask, _what is going on, Elena_?"

"You all need to get out of my room and close the door," she instructs once more.

"Are you _aware_ of just who you are petting so fondly, Elena?" Damon asks.

Elena simply nods, not speaking. She looks at Jeremy and gives him a hard look. "I'll meet you all downstairs in ten minuets."

They all leave reluctantly, and Elena gets out of bed and grabs some clothes to take to the bathroom and change into. When she gets out of the bathroom and makes her way back to her room to finish getting ready, the wolf is pacing her floor, just as when she first saw him. She sighs heavily.

"They'll never understand," she says, looking him right in the eyes. Her fingers graze his fur, closing her eyes at the familiar softness. "_I_ don't even understand."


	2. Part 2

"Let me get this straight," Damon drawls looking for all the world the cool and collected vampire; the anger and irritation oozing out of his words, however, betrays him. "You suspected Klaus was back in _October_, knew he was back at the end of _November_, didn't say anything through _February_, and invited him into your bed by _April_?"

"He wasn't threatening anyone, I saw no reason to cause trouble where there was none," Elena defends herself. Everyone notices she doesn't contradict the last bit.

"You have known for over _seven months_ that Klaus was back and said _nothing_!"

Elena places her hands on the table and pushes her chair back, then standing up fast. "_You_ never thought it was important to tell me that he was still after me in the first place. If I hadn't overheard you and Katherine talking, I wouldn't have known there was even a possible threat."

"What do you mean _possible_, Elena?" Caroline interjects calmly. "He wants to take you away from Mystic Falls. He _is_ a threat."

"We've known about each other for months and he hasn't tried anything—he has even respected my wishes and only enters the house when I invite him. I haven't even seen Klaus outside of his wolf form, and there have been no reports of 'animal attacks' since September. There is no proof that he is still a threat."

Stefan tilts his head. "Do you even know what his threat on you was before he disappeared last September?"

Elena shakes her head. She turns to Katherine. "You were the messenger. Tell me."

Katherine looks none to pleased to be relegated once more to the role of 'the messenger' and rolls her eyes. "He said that the next time he came back to town, he was not leaving without 'his doppelganger'—and we both know he didn't mean me."

-x-

Elena doesn't see the wolf again for a week, and in the interim, stories of animal attacks plague the news. Fear creeps back into her chest at each name, her eyes focus on each face. She sleeps with John's letter and a photo of her and Jenna under her pillow, and cries herself to sleep each night.

She starts spotting her guards on the third day.

No one leaves her alone anymore. At home, it is Jeremy—they even took her bedroom door off so she has no privacy—and at school it's Caroline or Stefan. Damon takes her out at night, and Katherine has take to sleeping on her couch.

Katherine doesn't bother to hide her resentment. "It's ridiculous to believe we will all spend the next seventy years protecting the human doppelganger from the big bad wolf," she says when Elena hands her a pillow and blanket on the third night, her first at the Gilbert's residence.

"I'm not asking for your protection—I'm not asking for anyone's protection."

She's lucky it's early May, for each night, she leaves her window open and falls asleep to music of his howls.

She wonders if he's angry or sad.

On the eighth day, she remembers the shortcut in the woods. She waits until she has a moment alone and makes a run for it, hoping and praying she'll reach the wolf before her vampire friends reach her.

Halfway home, she stops short, seeing the wolf blocking her path. "You waited for me," she manages to say between gulps of air.

The wolf just walks toward her, circles her legs twice, and stands at her side. His nose bumps her hand as if to say 'go on' before his head tilts up to look at her.

She continues on her way home at a leisurely pace with the wolf by her side.

-x-

When they arrive at the house, everyone is standing guard at the door, staring at her. The wolf takes one look at them before its low growl is heard.

Elena silently pets the wolf's head in an attempt to calm him. It nuzzles her hand and tilts its head to the side in an affectionate glance. Caroline's _aww_ can be heard clearly, even by the human doppelganger.

"It's my house," Elena declares with conviction. "You have no right to forbid entrance to me or anyone I grant access." So with that, she walks forward and watches as her 'protectors' part ways and allow her entrance, the wolf trailing threateningly behind her.

In her room, Elena grabs her journal and a pen and sits on her bed. The wolf gracefully jumps up and settles beside her, its head lying against her leg.

Elena sighs. "This is wrong," she whispers as she runs her fingers through his soft fur. "This is wrong and I _know_ it, but it feels…it feels—" she cuts off then, unsure of how or unable to—she isn't sure which—finish that sentence.

She shakes her head and holds the pen steadily between her fingers. She puts to paper all the thoughts she can't voice aloud to anyone—herself included.

Before she goes to asleep that night she says two things to the wolf. "The diary is off limits," she tells it as she places it back in its hiding place. The wolf bows its head in understanding and Elena's trust in it to leave her thoughts to herself defies reason.

Then, later, once it is dark and her eyes are closed, she whispers sleepily as she strokes its fur. "This can't continue like this much longer. We have to deal with what this is—what this _really_ is…what _you_ really are."

For the first time, the wolf is gone before she wakes.

-x-

A few nights later, she is starting to wonder what has changed, for she hasn't seen the wolf since the night she stood up to everyone outside. A small part of her believes what everyone around her is saying; that maybe he's given up and will leave them all alone now. The bigger part of her knows, however, that he's gone through too much trouble to leave without her, so she waits.

And waits.

Weeks pass and she hears nothing. She stops closing her window in the morning and leaves it open all the time. It's June, and school is out. She has graduated from Mystic Falls High School with surprisingly good grades, considering how many absences she's had in the last two years.

Bonnie's leaving in the fall for California. She got a scholarship to UCLA and, although she won't admit it, Elena can tell she is secretly glad to be able to escape all the supernatural things that happen in Mystic Falls.

Caroline and Stefan, on the other hand, are both putting off college—everyone is choosing to ignore the fact that Stefan's surely gone before, although he doesn't talk about it. They have forever, after all, they don't need to spend Caroline's first few years—the only ones where she can pretend with people they can't tell—worried about school work.

Elena, on the other hand, put no thought into life past high school. She never applied for college; she never got a summer job.

At night, she looks out her open window and waits, wondering what his plans for her are.

-x-

Elena walks in on Damon and Katherine again at the Salvatore Boarding House. This time, she just intended to talk with Damon for a bit. She remembers a time when that was something that would cheer her up, and in this moment, she needs nothing more than that.

They must have been really involved not to notice her—or, more likely, Katherine made sure _he_ was too involved—for they are loud and obvious, even to her…even from the front door.

She slams the door on her way out and drives back to her house. When she arrives, Damon is already in her bedroom. "That was not what it sounded like, Elena."

Her head tilts to the side and she studies him briefly before turning and pulling off her sweatshirt. "Just admit it, Damon. Just admit it."

"Katherine is not—she's…she's not you, Elena, but I…" the words seem to get stuck in his throat.

Elena sighs and sits next to him on the bed. She puts her hand in his and their eyes meet. "I vowed long ago that I would not let Stefan use me as a replacement for Katherine, even before I knew we looked exactly alike. I won't let you do it either."

"You're not replacing her, Elena," Damon insists, and the strange thing is she believes him—or, rather, she believes he believes it.

"You love her, Damon. You loved her back in 1864 and you love her now. Me…well, I'm just all that you dreamed she could be back when you were willing to dream. You met me and reversed the roles; you had the power and you had the control and the knowledge. But she still has your love. I will not be Katherine for anyone—not Stefan, not you…no one."

She grabs her sweatshirt again and leaves; Damon doesn't follow.

When she comes back after dark, all is quiet in the house again. She gets ready for bed and opens her window, as is custom.

The howling starts up again that night, but instead of calming her like it used to, it keeps her up at night.

She hardly sleeps the first few nights, only able to drift off in the early hours of the morning when the howling stops. After awhile, however, it gets to a point where she can't sleep at all.

That is when he finally comes for her.

-x-

The doorbell rings in the late evening, just after she's finished the dishes and gone to her room to change. She makes her way briskly down the stairs and to the door, calling back up to Jeremy as she puts her hand on the doorknob. When she sees him, she freezes.

She can't claim to be surprised—this confrontation has been on her mind for so long she can't even remember when it first occurred to her—but she's gotten so used to the wolf that it's a shock to see _him_ on her front porch.

He looks her over, tilts his head and smirks. "Come on, Little Red," he remarks, referring to the blood red cotton nightgown she changed into after finishing the dishes. "Won't you invite me in?"

It occurs to her in that moment that the version of the tale she knew as a child is probably not the original version of the tale; nor is it in any way, shape, or form close to her reality at the moment.

"_Should_ I let you in?" she asks with more bravado than she truly feels.

Klaus's head tilts just slightly as he smirks. "You _want_ to let me in," he says.

She doesn't know how he knows this, but it's very true. Why she wants to let him in, knowing that he's dangerous and knowing that letting him in will start something she cannot explain. There's just something so magnetic about the way he looks at her. His demeanor is calm, but there's this confident gleam in his eyes.

His eyes.

She has never had cause to notice before, but it is so clear now. There's a familiarity in his eyes. In the end, that is why she lets him inside—his eyes don't change when he becomes the wolf.

-x-

"What do you want from me?" she finds herself brave enough to ask a week later.

Things had progressed slowly the past seven days. Klaus would come by late each evening and ask for entrance. Elena would be ready to deny him, convincing herself that she really _shouldn't_ be letting him in as she is, but her eyes inevitably catch his and she always ended up nodding her acceptance.

He would stay for just over an hour; never saying anything, just shadowing her movements as she carefully keeps her brother from noticing his presence. He always leaves without a word to her, just disappearing when she's not watching.

Finally, she can't stand it any longer. She steps outside, putting herself on equal footing with him and confronts the situation.

"Whatever it is you are offering, Elena," he answers smoothly, unaffected by her sudden assertiveness.

Elena doesn't know what to make of his words so she walks inside without a backward glance.

The wolf howls outside her window on this night.

-x-

Both the wolf and Klaus are absent for the next four nights and it is on the fifth that Elena realizes that everyone she knows hasn't been leaving the Klaus situation alone.

Klaus knocks on her front door that night and Elena rushes to answer. His clothes are ripped and stained with blood and he looks dirty. "Did you know that this damn town has all sorts of vampire torture locations underground?" he asks casually.

Elena doesn't have time to marvel about his blaze attitude in spite of his obvious pain. "What are you talking about?" she asks, helping him inside. "What happened?"

"Your friends haven't taken to my presence very well," he responds as she leads him upstairs to her bedroom.

"What did they do?"

"They captured me four nights ago while I was in wolf form. Your little witch found a spell to keep me stuck like that for awhile. I was stuck for three days in wolf form, in a cage, no food or water. Then she and the brother's Salvatore suppressed my vampire side after they turned me back."

She leads him to her bed, but Klaus shakes his head and eases himself to the floor.

Elena kneels beside him. "What did they want?"

Klaus laughs bitterly then. "I'm not quite sure they knew. They wanted information, they wanted me to leave, they wanted your safety…they wanted me to stop coming here." His smirk is back at the end and his eyes lock with hers.

She can't help her own smirk as she tilts her head to examine him. "So the first thing you do when you get away is come to me?"

"What can I say?" he says. "I live dangerously."

-x-

When Elena wakes the next morning, the wolf is lying next to her, its dark eyes blinking back at her. Her hands idly run across its fur. For the first time since she met the wolf, she realizes just how content she feels when she's with it.

While she gets ready for school, the wolf leaves, missing a very important revelation.

It isn't just the wolf she feels at ease with.

-x-

When Klaus comes by late that night, she meets him by the door with a suitcase.

"We need to leave," she says breathlessly. "They're not gonna stop until your dead."

He looks more amused than anything. "You don't think I can take them, love?" he asks.

Elena rolls her eyes as she continues toward her car. "We both know there'd be no one left if you chose to kill everyone. I just don't want anyone to die."

"Even me?" he wonders as he follows behind her, amusement in his voice.

"Especially you," she says seriously.


End file.
